Regarding Dan Malleck's query regarding student responses to history of alcohol courses: I'm offering one at Carleton University in January 2000, a one semester (12-week) survey of alcohol in western societies from the Middle Ages to the present. While I clearly can't say anything yet about students' expectations, I can say that they are very keen on the course. This is for senior undergraduates (third year of a four-year B.A.) and History courses at that level normally attract about 30 students. To date the history of alcohol course has a registration of 110. Courses starting in January generally pick up a lot of students in December, and I expect the alcohol course will easily reach its limit (set by the size of the lecture room) of 123 students. Only the burden of marking essays and exams deters me from getting a larger lecture hall. I should say, to put things in perspective, that I had the same experience with a course (same level, same length) that I'm curently teaching this Fall. It's on the social history of sexuality and enrolment quickly reached the maximum 123. I had other students phoning to ask to be allowed to registe, but I had to turn them down. Startlingly, four weeks into this course there have been no withdrawals (pardon any pun detected here). My sense is that students will rally to such courses (alcohol, sexuality) on the history of everyday life/behavior because they offer something different from the courses generally offered. That's not a bad thing, I hasten to add, and it can only be positive for this field. Rod Phillips History, Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (613) 520-2600 ext 2824 [log in to unmask]